Domain DNS propagation and resolution issue

Question

I bought a domain from Bigrock and then updated its DNS name servers with my friend’s GoDaddy Windows Server. The DNS was updated and the propagation was completed in around 4 hrs I think. Later, we decided to move onto his Linux Server which is also on GoDaddy. Again updated the name servers of the domain in Bigrock. But this time, the DNS servers don’t seem to be updated around the world. Even after 48hrs, no effect!

When I checked intodns.com and it is giving this error:

When we contacted Bigrock, they are saying that an A record was not found in GoDaddy server. When we contacted GoDaddy, they are saying there is no need of any change in the server, only needs to update the DNS Nameserver in the domain panel of Bigrock and then add the A record there with the Godaddy server IP which we did already.

Answer 1

The big clue in the in the DNS check is this:

Mismatched NS records WARNING: One or more of your name servers did not return any of your NS records.

The speed of propagation was 100% fine; the settings for DNS resolution are apparently completely wrong. In about 4 to 48 hours all DNS servers around the world received the incorrect DNS settings telling them to check GoDaddy for your site. Thus the site is unreachable. Which is not good, but can be fixed.

And simple ping of example.com confirms this:

ping example.com
ping: cannot resolve example.com: Unknown host

Which means the name servers are not properly set since they cannot even return an IP address for basic resolution. Not even an SOA (Start of Authority) record can be found which is a massive deal; it means the DNS servers you have set simply have no idea who you are. But you state this:

When we contacted Bigrock, they are saying that an A record was not found in Godaddy server.

That makes little sense unless GoDaddy is managing your DNS but it doesn’t seem that way. So this all sounds like some DNS server setting mixup. According to a simple whois you have GoDaddy’s DNS set as follows:

Name Server: NS15.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS16.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

But it is clear that NS15.DOMAINCONTROL.COM and NS16.DOMAINCONTROL.COM have no idea who you are.

So the question is: The domain was purchased by BigRock, but is the DNS managed by them or GoDaddy? Those DOMAINCONTROL.COM servers are managed by GoDaddy; not Bigrock. A hosting service does not have to have DNS settings changed if registration and DNS are 100% elsewhere. Remember three facts about registration, DNS and hosting:

• Domain registration is simply the registration of a domain name.
• DNS servers manage IP address related records connected to registered domain names.
• Hosting services simply manage the server connected to an IP address.

Sometimes people feel that registration and DNS need to be tied together. Some people think registration, DNS and hosting are tied together. But they are really all independent items.

That said, I just checked the domain history with this online tool and found the following nameservers were connected to the domain initially:

dns1.bigrock.in
dns2.bigrock.in
dns3.bigrock.in
dns4.bigrock.in

And doing a manual dig NS lookup directly to those servers shows some success:

dig @dns1.bigrock.in NS example.com

And here are the results:

; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> @dns1.bigrock.in NS example.com
; (4 servers found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 31406
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.com.           IN  NS

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com.        38400   IN  NS  dns2.bigrock.in.
example.com.        38400   IN  NS  dns4.bigrock.in.
example.com.        38400   IN  NS  dns1.bigrock.in.
example.com.        38400   IN  NS  dns3.bigrock.in.

;; Query time: 131 msec
;; SERVER: 50.23.136.230#53(50.23.136.230)
;; WHEN: Sat Dec  6 03:00:17 2014
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 116

And a simple direct dig reveals that those name servers know who your domain is and what IP to resolve to:

dig @dns1.bigrock.in example.com

And here are those results:

; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> @dns1.bigrock.in example.com
; (4 servers found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 19780
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.com.           IN  A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com.        28800   IN  A   23.229.194.6

;; Query time: 141 msec
;; SERVER: 50.23.136.230#53(50.23.136.230)
;; WHEN: Sat Dec  6 03:01:44 2014
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 46

So it’s clear that Bigrock’s DNS servers know what your domain is. So the solution to this issue is to login to the Bigrock admin panel and change the DNS server entries to dns1.bigrock.in, dns2.bigrock.in, dns3.bigrock.in and dns4.bigrock.in. The GoDaddy DNS entries are incorrect and causing the issue. In this case, the only thing connected to GoDaddy is the IP address connected to the hostname; everything else should be connected to Bigrock.